Day 15: To Spokane!

Day 10 with the cyclists! The entire team is super excited for this visit because it also means our first day off since starting the trip. We started out trip out with a crew chief breakfast and made our way to Spokane, Washington. When we were about ten miles outside of the city we stopped on the side of the road to get ready for our first stage up. What this means is that we have a police escort that leads us into the city and to a specific location. Normally there would be media there to film the coverage but for today there was none. As the crew made their way into town I went ahead with our Project Manager, David Stinnette. He’s the one that goes ahead of all the cyclists and makes sure everything is set for our meals and with lodging. We arrived, got the keys, checked the place out, and welcomed the cyclists as they entered.

Once everyone got unpacked and ready, we headed to the headquarters for the People to People program. When I was in middle and high school I got letters from the program and they offer a variety of programs for students to go out of the country and experience first-hand the culture of being in a different country. They interact with families there and get to do all sorts of site-seeing. I never knew their headquarters was in Spokane, Washington of all places. In the building they also have other programs like Discovery Student Adventures and more. One of the guys that work there, Trevor Brink, is a Pi Alpha and allowed us to use the shower facilities. After showering we headed back to lodging and hung out there until it was time for dinner.

Our dinner was at the People to People headquarters and they made us some PHENOMENAL Mexican style food. After dinner the guys were catching a basketball game on television and then we made our way back to lodging to explore some more before bed time. While in Spokane I was able to explore a bit and I went to this great coffee shop called INDABA. They are a local shop and I got a hazelnut caramel mocha. When I ordered it the barista asked which espresso flavor I wanted in it and I said surprise me.  It was literally the best mocha I’ve ever had. 

On our second day in Spokane, we woke up rather early and got ready to head to breakfast with the Arc of Spokane. They made us several types of breakfast casserole and we had a friendship visit with the members there. Some of them had us sign pages because they wanted our autographs and we were also able to play dominoes, we put together a puzzle, we played pool, we colored and did an art project, and many other activities. One of the directors also had us place a star on a map of where we’re from to see how diverse our group really is.

Throughout the day we had some free time to get errands done. Some of us went to do laundry and some went exploring around the city and to bike shops. I went with a cyclist, Tyler Earley, to one of the bike shops there because he had to get something fixed on his. It was cool to look around the shops and price how much things are going to cost me once I get into cycling at the end of this summer. My plans are to ride in the JOH next summer since I’m crewing this year. Which route do you think I should ride? Should I ride TransAmerica even though I will have already seen all the sites or should I ride North or South?

When time for dinner came around we drove out a little ways to the Nelson’s house. It was secluded outside the city limits of Spokane. They ordered Panda Express for all of us and had tons of fresh fruit and desserts. They also had a volleyball net set up outside, hillbilly golf, ping pong, and they had a television ready with the game on downstairs for the guys that wanted to see that. It was such a great time because both of her sons were Pi Kapps and her daughter was a Theta too at Washington State University. While playing volleyball I really hurt my pinky toe because the grass was wet. That didn’t feel too good. I think I’ll stick to volleyball on a court. After dinner we headed to lodging to rest up for our ride tomorrow to Rathdrum, Idaho. This will be the first time officially crossing the line of another state on our way to D.C Earlier in the week we were able to goes on a late night excursion to Oregon because one of our stops was only 12 miles away from the border. It was pretty cool because I was able to be in two places at once by standing on the border of Washington and Oregon.